Another magazine bash against audax

[jogler]

What do you mean uncool? Eskdalemuir was the coolest experience that I've ever had, and I've been around a while.

I've participated in sports for most of my life, and that night was the worst and best all in one. I had to dig deeper than I ever had before, survived on beans, eggs and whisky spiced porage.
Cool.

if nothing else,the food was terrific

[teethgrinder]

I think that AUK should hit back. AUK should administer a new rule which states that we all have to wear leather jackets and shades while riding an AUK event. Then we'd all look like the icon of cool, The Fonz. (Ehhhh! )

Furthermore, we should all attend Sportive events in standard AUK attire. I shall get my holyest* wooly jersey, grow some more facial hair, buy some sandals, then ride them for a few thousand miles for the authentic look, fettle my knackered hack bike back onto the road and then turn up for a sportive event. I will also refuse to buy any merchandise and eat my own sandwiches instead if those vile energy pseudo foodos. I will also give a running commentry on the merits of each bus shelter for sleeping purposes that we pass, to anyone who happens to be with me at the time.
And if I get any comments regarding the scruffy nature of either myself or my bike, I shall comment that this ride of such an insignificant distance is not worthy of my best bike, for this is merely a jolly little jaunt and preperation for a "proper" ride.





*holy as in, got holes in it, not related to God.

[D0m1n1c Burford]

People where I work know I ride Audax events, and while I may not be considered cool, they definitely respect the fact that I ride long distance events.

[Rig of Jarkness]

(I do miss Michael Hutchinson's pithy column - i'll just have to live without it)

Good point !  Perhaps if someone can persuade Dr H to write about audaxing instead of testing then that would be the way to get it into CW.  It still wouldn't make it cool though. 

(Incidentally when I first started buying Cycling as it was then I'm sure I remember the occasional touring article by none other than Mr George Berwick)

[urban_biker]

Stop calling it audax.  Call it something like Endurance Riding or Cycling for Really Hard Riders (no jokes please, Hummers). Stick 'Challenge' on the end of a few event names. Scrap info controls - if  someone wants to "cheat", let them. More 100-150km rides so that younger people who have family commitments can do them more easily (some will get hooked and gravitate to long distances). On line entry so there's no messing around with SAEs.

Alternatively, leave well alone because Audaxing is a nice day out on the bike, often in good company.

Didn't someone a few years ago raise a motion at the AGM for a more cool name? I think the suggestion was to rename audax UK as the Bicycle Ultra-Marathon Club UK. It was quickly sat on I understand.

[recumbentim]

Think I will do a few DIY,s next year on sportive or TT routes .  And while telling the riders that I pass about my recumbent being banned from UCI racing events since 1934------I will ask them if they think my Audax mudgaurd sticker is COOl ?

[MercuryKev]

Think I will do a few DIY,s next year on sportive or TT routes .  And while telling the riders that I pass about my recumbent being banned from UCI racing events since 1934------I will ask them if they think my Audax mudgaurd sticker is COOl ?

You should also make sure that you're listening to your radio, eating an ice cream and sipping a can of Stella

[recumbentim]

You got it in one sentance Kev , that,s why Audax is cool.

[Uncle Eric]

The cool thing with Audax is that it is so uncool. 1,000 people at the start, all queuing to get their brevet card would just be a hassle. And then floating along in 50 people draft packs between controls would just be dumb. Then soon they might as well remove controls and put up direction signs. Which would make it a cyclosportive. Be glad it is so uncool instead!

[Gus]

Furthermore, we should all attend Sportive events in standard AUK attire. I shall get my holyest* wooly jersey, grow some more facial hair, buy some sandals, then ride them for a few thousand miles for the authentic look, fettle my knackered hack bike back onto the road and then turn up for a sportive event. I will also refuse to buy any merchandise and eat my own sandwiches instead if those vile energy pseudo foodos. I will also give a running commentry on the merits of each bus shelter for sleeping purposes that we pass, to anyone who happens to be with me at the time.
And if I get any comments regarding the scruffy nature of either myself or my bike, I shall comment that this ride of such an insignificant distance is not worthy of my best bike, for this is merely a jolly little jaunt and preperation for a "proper" ride.


*holy as in, got holes in it, not related to God.

I've tried that here, they laugh and looks funny at you until you drop them in the headwind after 150 km 

Highly recommended 

[thing1]

As I say, if AUK wants to chase members, it should be thinking about how to exploit the sportive audience.  
...
I doubt very much if we will ever attract people new to cycling. 

Don't know about chasing new members, more about minimizing others chasing potential recruits away.

In our case we came across audax when we very much 'new' to cycling -- buying our first touring bike and reading our first copy of C+. It took a year or more to actually do our first audax (by which time we were no longer such newbies), but I doubt we ever would have bothered making the leap, had those first things we read had been dismissive of it.
Equally if AUK were doing a big effort to lure sportive types, that would have missed us too (as we have never had any interest in those time-chip carrying peloton rides)

[MercuryKev]

I must admit that I don't really want Audax to be though of as cool.  I'd hate to be on a ride where it was frowned upon to wear a bread bag on your head:

[Martin]

sorry; a bit late to this thread, but who honestly gives a flying one what they say?

we know we as a disparate group of hard working low budget volunteers could not cope with the massive influx of riders if Audax suddenly became "cool". I do my bit to make it non-uncool, wearing normal club and even sportive kit on AUK events; and ride a non-steel bike. Many riders on shorter events don't even have an Audax specific bike.

The only people who have a problem with Audax have probably never ridden one; those riders I know who have ridden their first few think they are great and no different to any other type of non-racing cycling. We all sometimes scoff at riders doing £25 sportives in the same way they scoff at us for being all beards and sandles. The division between "us" and "them" (whoever "them" are) will break down, slowly.

[Hot Flatus]

 I personally ride audaxes because I enjoy them, irrelevant of their 'coolness'.

Audax is totally uncool, which is why I like it.

(ii) we need leadership from AUK to reinvent the activity as 'cool'?

   Oh dear god, I'm wiping tears of laughter from my eyes at the thought of what that might look like.  Please, please... someone suggest that at the next AGM...


For purely selfish reasons, I want audax to remain firmly uncool.... if I wanted to ride sportives, I'd ride them.  MercuryKev has it summed up for me.

[rogerzilla]

"Cool" would eliminate all those horrible 80s gilets, which would be a tragedy.  They might come back into fashion one day.

[Hummers]

Are we cool?

I SAID, ARE WE COOL MUCKER FUTHA?




Yes, we're cool, aren't we Honeybunny?




"We're cool"




Good, we are all Kool and the Gang, a bunch of regular Fonzies. Now, do you want those chips or not?


H


*Tempers flare at Sutton Scotney Services control  on El Supremo's Hailsham 600, 2007

[Jaded]

Hell. Audax is so cool I had to get some 2nd hand armwarmers.

[Really Ancien]

I must admit that I don't really want Audax to be though of as cool.  I'd hate to be on a ride where it was frowned upon to wear a bread bag on your head:

Of course 'cool' is old hat, what we should aim for is 'epic' which is the description the moderator of the main cycling group on Vimeo gave to the video of the ride shown above, and that was only a 300. <a href="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1181480&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;fullscreen=1&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=01AAEA" target="_blank">http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1181480&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;fullscreen=1&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=01AAEA</a>  These magazines are selling the dream, a sustaining fantasy whereby the objects project the rider onto the screen beside his or her flawed heroes. But the world has moved on, there's no need to fantasise, you can do something wholly authentic and share it with the world. Of course they shouldn't name a bike 'Audax' it's the rider who has what it takes, or not.

Damon.

[Weirdy Biker]

1,000 people at the start, all queuing to get their brevet card would just be a hassle. And then floating along in 50 people draft packs between controls would just be dumb. Then soon they might as well remove controls and put up direction signs. Which would make it a cyclosportive.

Or PBP  

[Weirdy Biker]

I must admit that I don't really want Audax to be though of as cool.  I'd hate to be on a ride where it was frowned upon to wear a bread bag on your head:

LOL++.  McNasty is an absolute legend.  As long as we have people like him in our ranks, we're doing just fine.

[Lycra Man]

In recent correspondence with Rob Spedding, Editor of Cycling Plus, I asked (among other things) for more coverage of Audax events.

Rob said he was planning on entering a couple next year, and I invited him to consider two in my neck of the woods, The Dean and Heart of England.

I don't want to make Audax cool. It's fine as it is. I would like to attract more riders, to keep it healthy and strong. This might help.

Lycra Man

[Ray 6701]

I must admit that I don't really want Audax to be though of as cool.  I'd hate to be on a ride where it was frowned upon to wear a bread bag on your head:

Absolute quality 

[Oaky]

I must admit that I don't really want Audax to be though of as cool.  I'd hate to be on a ride where it was frowned upon to wear a bread bag on your head:

Class.  A complete C|N>K moment for me when I saw that.  I think mrs_o thought I was having some sort of seizure.

[TOBY]

I must admit that I don't really want Audax to be though of as cool.  I'd hate to be on a ride where it was frowned upon to wear a bread bag on your head:

Absolute quality 

That's so hot right now with the kids, did you not see N-Dubz on Jonathan Ross?

[Jaded]

That's so hot right now with the kids, did you not see N-Dubz on Jonathan Ross?

Was that the bloke with an IQ of 6?